AOE3 Forums

Yep! You found it. Welcome to the best Portugal Strategy Guide on the web for AOEIII.

Other top players, along with myself,have put together a collection of well engineered, easy to read strategies. Along with extensive expirience, there are tips'n'tricks here every player should use. The first Thread is divided into 3 main parts: Muskt Rush, Anti-Jan, the Portugal FF, and a Fast-industrial age strategy.

    First, many players are put off by the difficulty of trying out this civ. As with the Ottoman, Chinese, and Germans, this civ takes getting used to.(along with extensive micro-managing )

The big advantages are the 2 unique units with which you play.

Cassadors- Super skirmishers. With 50% ranged armor; this unit pwns skirms and, Lbows. Why they rock.
Organ Guns- Extremely hard hitting guns- capable of taking out 7 lbows in 1 salvo. Reloads every 4 seconds vs the falcs 5 seonds and the muskts 3 seconds.

The problem with these two is that: even though they are decidedly deadly against ranged units, that increased ranged armor comes at the cost of low hitpoints. That means they die very fast in melee combat. Let any units get close enough, and they are horribly, utterly, doomed.

With these two, you can fend off ANY age II attack behind a simple stretch of walls.

  (Portugal also has the most infantry units, including Xbows, Pikes, Muskt, Haldb, and Cassadors, along with hussars and the best dragoons in the game)

Basic Muskteer Rush

this works well against Germans, spainish, french, portugal, and any FF'ers. This will not be effective against any civ with good Light Infantry, such as russian, Britian, and Dutch. There is a modified version of this strategy at the bottom for Ottoman rushes.

(700 wood, 700 gold, 8 xbows, 6 muskt, 600 coin) keep all settlers on food

3 houses, one market and two Rax. use the 2nd TC as a Forward fb

Since they are so flexible, it is difficult to predict what a Portuguese player is doing, which makes one that much harder to defeat. 90% of the time, it is better to age up than make more units. This applies especially to Portugal. They get free TC's everytime they age, giving you the equilvelent of 600 wood and 10 population, plus much improved Shipments.
get hunting dogs for a higher gathering rate.

How to Beat an Jannisary Rush

For a anti-jan semi-rush(half turtleing, half rushing), leave 4settlers on food, put 6 villigers on wood and 2 on gold. MAKE AN OUTPOST as soon as you have 250 wood right infront of your house. Jan's have no ranged armor, just a 20% reduction of all melee attack done to them, and outposts have 30 ranged attack, so 3 outposts will kill one janissary every 3.166 seconds.

SEND: 2 outposts, 6 muskts, 700 (G/F),

Place the 2 outposts on either side of your house. That house should be surrounded by 3 outposts and your TC.

Perhaps you doubt this would work, but have you ever even tried it defending against Ottomans as Portugal? Probly not I have though, and i must tell you, it works. All the outposts do 60 damage together IF he ever makes it as far as your base. I usually let him fight under 3 Towers, he falls quicker, but you can take out his units at his rax, then take out his rax, neglecting your 3 towers. this works especially well if he sent 2 settlers to build it and they are still around (much more likely than you think). Then move on to his tc and kill any settlers that dont make it to the TC in time. (otto dont have many settlers early game.) This is the time to attack them. Early on, before they can boom.

 6 muskts are roughly equal to 5 jans. The 5 jans cost 500 food, and 125 gold. The muskt cost 375 food, and 125 gold. The jans cost 25 more resourses, and train slightly slower.  Belive it or not, the 6 muskt win slightly. Yes, i've tried this in a game too, and they do. Jans train slower than muskt, so as long as you have the resources, and are pumping out muskts nonstop, you WILL have an army bigger than his. The best an ottoman player can do is 15 jans at 6:15. A Portugual player can have 16 at 5:55. seriously, that rocks. That is right. Once you have 16 msukts, go in his rax. If you want to mess with him, shoot him, back off, then shoot again, repeat till he comes too far forward and runs into your 3 outposts. Most players(lamers) actually attack at this point. i don't know why, but many feel they must keep the offensive. You have a larger army AND 3 outposts, so this should be quick works. Like i said, you can also ignore your 3 outposts, and take out his RAX without their help. If you didn't make enough muskts on time, let him engage your outposts. dont forget EVERY building is now 1.40 times stronger. Use the shoot and scoot with your musks, and make him do loops around you tc, losing men from the outpost fire. dont garison villies, unless they are in immediat danger.

From here, you should have a GG. If he has set up more than 2 outposts at his TC, wait until you can age with the 700 (G) shipment, and get one of the super units- cassadors or organ guns. Age with 6 Cassadores. Also: use native Light infantry whenever possible-carib, cherokee, cree, and seminole. keep the villiger balance at 4 6 2, but use the 250 wood from the outpost that is usually built. Send 700 wood if the natives require wood. don't make any till you have 16+10 muskts though.

The Portuguese Fast Fortress

_______________________________________________________

cards: AGEII: 700 gold

AGEIII: 1000 wood, 8 halb, <attack> 1000 gold, merc. card

Armies: 3 organ guns defended by the 8 halb,            *at 6:45-7 minutes

2 organ guns                                                   *at 7:30

3organ guns defended by 9  muskts(or merc).              *at <9 minutes

              *and when i say LESS THAN, mean it.

_______________________________________________________

Many civ’s simply cannot keep up with Portugal’s Economy in age two. However, AGEIII Portugal has Undisputedly the best economy. Being that when Portugal gets there, the 3 town centers are already built. Portugal recives a town center everytime it ages. This gives the unmatched ability to spawn more settlers than every other civ.  Additionally, the two Super-Troopers that were mentioned earlier aren’t available till the Fortress Age.

The muskteer rush is better for France, Ottoman, Spanish, Germany, and Portugal, but not Britian, Dutch, or a Russian rush.

For these reasons, I find it effective to use a Fast Fortress strategy versus any civ that is Britian, Dutch, and sometimes* Russia(I feel Russia is the bane of the Portugal Empire, so i devised a totally seperate strategy for them. just for Games against russia, but that's later).

       Sometimes I can still FF during a Russian Rush because having two town centers makes it incredibly difficult for them to hurt my economy than theirs. Simply erecting a wall around your two town centers with a herd or 2 in the middle can nullify ANY rush attack for a short time. The Fast Fortress can be extremely effective. Here's the Build Order starting at Age2 for an aging time of 5:55.
This starts off where the first post stopped at AGEI. So does the next thread. So:

-Click AgeII button using 400 wood politician

-Move 3 settlers to Gold (300 gold)

-Leave rest of settlers on food (1600 food) 1200+400

-Queue up 4 settler from TC

-As soon as you age, send the 2nd town center wagon to the far end of of the map, on one side of your enemy (by a herd and a coin-mine), thus to keep him off resources. Your enemy can't kill a TC fast enough for you to age (especially b/c the nomadic Age has no military). Keep out of sight, don't build too close, and don't let him get on to what you are doing. Player skill goes a long way. Also keep in mind both TC's must always be queuing settlers. If you don't do so, you don't take advantage of this civilization's bonus. Since you can queue settlers twice as fast as any other civ now, you can afford to have them gather what food you need to age, instead of using the 500 food politician .

-Use 700 gold Shipment.

-Shortly after your shipment arrives you should hit 1200 food 1000 gold (at approx the same time).

-Click to AgeIII.. Here, you have a couple options:

1. Marksman-Sacrifice super-fast age time for a stronger military in Age2, and use the 6 Cassador politician
2. Exiled prince-Get a super-fast age time (5:55-6:25), which will give you access to Age3 cards more quickly.

3. You need to decide what card you are likely going to send once you hit age3 after sending the 1000 wood.

The fastest AND best army you can have here is:

    -3 organ guns Defended by a shipment of 8 Halb.    --- Need only 1 building: Artillery foundry.

        then send in

      -2 more organ guns

          then send in 

        -3 more organ guns Defended by a shipment of 9 muskt

2 min, 01 sec- how lon it takes 20 settlers all on gold to gather all the resourses needed. 2400 gold.

Use your 2nd TC base to make a Artillery Foundery, make 4-5 more houses ONLY(need the rest for making oragn guns), and set the 2nd TC to the (HomeCityDropOffPoint.) This move is equivelent to taking the long way around your enemies fb(if he has one). Destroy your enemies settlers, and wait for his army to come gallivanting back to his base. Destroy his army; you have a 30-population army. Organ guns destroy everything, and your halb. take melee damage for your low health cannons. Do not forget that if he rebounds from this attack, which he shouldn’t, you have already taken the lead from which he cannot recover. Never forget that, and never give up once you are at this point.

    *all cannons have the 75% resistance, so if a infantry shoots at it with 20 attack damage, the Cannon only loses 5 hit points. The object of the game is to be more cost effective than your enemy, so as long as nothing melee's your cannons, you will most likely win. 

Don't gather ANY wood, which is the slowest gathering resource. All shipments make up for this.
Don’t forget to have a constant settler production from your 3 TC’s, or you neglect your civilization’s bonus.


A lot of times players will make the mistake of trying to keep up with you rush themselves into Fortress Age without making much military in hopes of competing with whatever you throw at them. IF this is the case then you just got very lucky. Where as they will get to the Third Age and have nothing, in the two minutes after you clicked that Exiled Prince Politician, you will have a army greater than anything he can throw at you. Including the 4 mamelmukes. They go down surprising fast, just make sure they don’t reach your cannons. Place them between two of your enemies buildings, and station Halb’s at either side of that “alley”.
 
The other thing that can happen is that they attempt to send whatever military they have at your doorstep and try to take you down before you get your shipments.. this can present a problem, but it is counterable. If this happens, you need to make sure you have 150f and 150g for Minutemen. Your minutemen and TC fire should hold them off for long enough so your army can arrive and wipe out their military, as well as give you enough XP and buy you some time for a 2nd shipment so you can go in and finish them off.

The other possibility here is that you chose to go the Marksman (6 Cassador route). This will ensure that you have a defense when they come, but wont get you the 30 pop army in. The only problem is that you will probably not get your army until 6:45- 7:15 minutes into the game, where you are completely vulnerable to enemy attacks up until that point. Although, it gives you Skirmishers which will counter any Muskets they have, this path only give you 115x6=720 resources, where this game is all about time. This is too long.

You should currently have a 17 villager eco. Make 5 more, then stop. Seeing as 20 villies on gold should give you a sufficient gold income to keep spaming organ guns. The important thing is that you can put enough houses down for your army, and eventually a barracks sometime after you send your army away. Once you have all 8 cannons, 9 muskt, and 8 halbs attacking, start settler prodution up again. Don't forget to, or you will suffer late game.

I would also strongly recommend searching for treasures that help you age, or that can give you enough exp. to set up your fort.

So, 22 villies, and here is a recap on all the shipments for a great FF:

AGEII: 700 gold

AGEIII: 1000 wood, 8 halb, <attack> 1000 gold, 9 muskt

during this, you should have sent in:   

3 organ guns defended by the 8 halb,            *at 6:45-7 minutes

2 organ guns                                                   *at 7:30

3organ guns defended by 9  muskts.              *at <9 minutes

              *and when i say LESS THAN, mean it.

   *also, i send my explorer into the enemy tc b4 my army gets there, to see what units he has. This is one of those tips that you will forget, and then remember and use once you gt really really good. I also send 1 settler into battle to erect a wall right at the edge of the enemy tc FOR my artillery to hide behind. This is a good idea if ur enemy is massing muskt, or calv. Massing Calv take time, and it is a garuntee a Regular civ will have no more than 8 calvary when you arrive. Which, you should already have been in his Town and killing all his settlers. 8 haldb's take care of any calvary numbering less than 18. Calv lose FAST to anti-calv infantry.

   Exceptions- Germany has uhlans that cost 100 gold and 50 food. that's 25% cheaper, so they will have a MAX of 25. Russian suck at calv, but has 2 cards which equal 9 cossacks which die easy, but are really easy to get, so chances are, you will see these more often than the other civs.

if this doesn't works, you have either: utterly failed as a human being or your opponent is really good. Like 1stLeuit+++. IF he is, age again with 10 muskt's and send the Portuguese Expeditionary Force-6 dragoons and 6 cassadors, make a mortar, and send the mortar to take down any defenses he has, which would be towers, or a fort. put the muskt's into defend mode and line the cassadors infront of the must's with dragoons on either side of the 6 cassadores.

AND, if he manages to age and get culvrins or falc's, use the dragoons in MELEE mode. As ranged attacks will take 3 times as long to kill the artillery piece.

PS: you should have 30 villies on food, 20 on gold, and 10 on wood by 14 minutes. Should be GG in less than 10 minutes though.

The Portugese 105 Turtle
 

this strategy is not so much a set strategy with build order, but a goal of getting 105 settlers with tips on how to get there.

This focuses on having 105 settlers before 12 minutes. Only having 40 settlers in a 1v1 game by this time is usually unstoppable. Having 105 settlers means you can take on 3 enemy opponents and win. With instantly replace-able troops. (You will if you have enough resources, which 105 settlers will do), this strategy is one of the more beautiful ones. if done properly.
With the 3 settler Politician and the Cree and Cherokee cards (2 of the most common natives on maps), Portugal almost always has 105 villagers within 30minutes.

Although common knowledge, any good Portuguese player CAN have maxed out villies (99) before the age to fortress. Now, this takes time, 12 minutes to be exact, but of the three strategies discussed in the AOEIII manual, Turteling is the only one not widely used. [insert manual link] As the best civ for turtleing, the Portugese are adept at pulling this off, along with the Dutch. Booming beats this strat, and this beats rushing which in turn beats booming. The majority of players rush, as the top 40 players figured out of the 3 strategies, rushing was the fastest, and therefore could get them a higher rank without wasting their time. Lesser players just did what the good ones did, and eventually everyone did so.

Seeing that this is another “obsolete” strat that the game developers have not corrected, this may be another item that gives you an edge.

First, the object is to get to industrial age very fast, and use a small army to harass theirs, with walls and redoubts covering much of the opponent’s path.

     The way I (blowgunner_1) does it:

Start with the Improved Buildings Card: adds 40% health to every buildings, which makes Outposts very hard to take down. Send chp Trading Posts next. make an alliance with the Cree, ONLY use the cheap building upgrade from them. I send the Trading posts card.They now only cost 88 wood and have ranged attack. Build all the TP's and outposts you can to control the map where you need the map and where he needs it(mines and herds close to him). DO NOT RANDOMLY PLACE OUTPOSTS ALL OVER THE MAP. Duh, but you would not believe how many ppl think map control means controling the entire map. You can, but outposts work best if they re-enforce each other. The limit is 7. This should be at 5 minutes.

Next, focus on aging before your opponent, and set an outpost RIGHT next to his Forward base, and  outposts line-ing the route to your Town. You will need a lot of wood, but send the 700 wood instead of the chp outpost card. Now, it is horrible for him to get his army even to your base when everytime he crossed an outpost, he get shot at, slowed down, and loses 1-2 men.

Also, it is EXTRELY possible to set up a outpost next to his Rax. He has no military when he is aging, so find out where his settler is, and build a outpost close to it. And that settler can make the outposts by his surrounding resourses too. I’ve tried this part, and it is extremely possible and actually is really easy.

Now, getting to the industrial while he is trying to take out those outposts surrounding his base) is really hard, but possible using walls and cannons emplacements. FF, like in the previous thread, and post organs guns by outposts. use 3 walls to form an triangle that surrounds just the outpost and the gun. Organs guns rock against ANYthing but culvs, and if you have a culvrin already in bombard mode, it will target the enemy culv. faster than the other can shoot back. 1 shot, 1 kill. Age with 10 muskt.

       Doing so, I would implore you to send the church card, so you can have instant army- 22 xbows or 11 black riders. This part is up to you- if it fits your style to have 22 anti-infantry units instantly pop up for 2000 wood, go ahead. it also upgrades all xbows to guard status.

Once you get to industrial- I wouldn’t recommend using your fishing ability until now, you can do 1 of 3 things:

vs booming---Max villies, and get them a high gathering rate- to counteract booming, which is the only way to beat this Portugese 105 Turtle. (actually, you should place some calv by your Outposts to take care of grenadiers)

vs rushing---(one that is killing ur outposts and threatening map control/// or is failing, but he keeps on sending in wave after wave anyway)Send Fortifications card, which upgrades all buildings in the industrial age. Walls- fully upgraded. Outposts-gives them a 300Seige attack(rocks). This lets you focus on other things than defending your outposts.

vs turtler---(like dutch) Make a mortar, send the PORTUGUESE EXPIDITIONARY FORCE card, and use the 10 muskt to defend it. PS: The Great Card is the Portugese Expeditionary Force: 6 Cassadors and 6 dragoons. This is a 18-population army, and is a force to be reckoned with all by it’s self in 10 minutes into the game. It’s total cost, were you to train it,  assuming you would have already built 2 RAX, and 2 Stables, is 1775 . Very nice.

Any suggestion on this would be Welcomed. Just don’t get off topic. The (un)Official Portuguese Strategy Thread.

I know it’s a lot to read, but when I first began AOEIII, the “The (un)Official German Strategy Thread” by EtherImp helped me out a lot. I would hate to see it fall off the face of the forums.

Port Colonial Strat

 

Age1: Standard age 1. Age with 12 settlers.

Trans: 400 wood poli. 7 on wood, 5 on food. NO BOOMING IS INVOLVED WITH THIS STRAT.

Age 2: Gather wood. Make fb of 2 rax. Train 2 settlers from each town centre. that brings u up to 16. Make the odd batch here and there, never stop, but don't concentrate on it. Xbow spam. (of course, if your playing germans wuth uhlans, use common sense and make pikes as well...)

Your first card is 700 wood. Then 700 food.

You should end up after the 700 wood card to have more wood than food. Make market IN THE FORWARD BASE.

Attack when you can. After you can maintain teh odd settler batch (one from each town centre) and frequent xbows, move all new settlers onto food and gold try to age to fortress. Around 12 mins you should reach it. You don't have to attack either.

I am a major on ESO, and I have been playing Portuguese lately, I really like their unique style of play. But I always try to get to fortress as fast as possible. I usually send either Advanced Trading Post, Schooners, or Colonial Militia first. There's no point in even making units or sending unit shipments in Colonial as Ports cannot compete, two town centers with Colonial militia holds off a rush pretty well (1 hit kills a Jannisary with two tcs, one hit kill of a pike with one when garrisoned with 10 settlers) And even improved buildings can be sent to really knock off a rush.

First Card- Advanced Trading Post, Schooners, Colonial Militia, or 700 wood (depending on map)

Second Card- 700 Gold, Colonial Militia, 700 Wood (Depending on how hard the rush is)

Third Card- Varies Widely, Usually 700 gold or fortress military shipment.

good point, i just see aging at 12 is too unsatisfactory. mabye in a team game. i dont build xbows.

1:the damage they inflict is actually LESS than the basic muskt. They are not a counter.

2: i dont like gathering wood until i have sent the 300, 400, and 700 shipments. xbow cost 40 food, 40 wood

also, colonial milita is just to expensive for what you can do with them. it's a good card if played properly, but use a easily built small army better.

other than that, good pointers.

BTW, many players misspell Portuguese as portugese. Don't, it's insulting. No wonder i couldn't find many threads on them.

I tried your jannisary defense stratagy and my muskets got smothered. If i would of used FF i wouldve had cassadores and would of smoked the jannys.  I'd say thats a much better way to go then using musks against jans.